I read something else on reddit about how the compass directions seem to be off. It was something about an airport that had built it's runways to face true cardinal directions, but recent compass readings show it is now slightly off cardinal, when it was decidedly NOT before.

here, this might be what you saw.

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yeah, I was pretty shocked when I saw this shown in multiple instances on mainstream TV, as I knew it meant that, even if the changes, themselves, aren't real, the general consensus is acknowledging them either way, for a reason.

See also: Fukushima

The magnetic field of celestial bodies changes all the time... right?

Yes, earth's magnetic field is always in flux, and has reversed on several occasions throughout the geological record. There is some discussion in the scientific community that it may be reversing right now, and that it's happening faster than expected.

I've heard this too but what are the real world implications? From what I gather the weakening of the magnetic field of the earth makes us more susceptible to coronal mass ejections from the sun, which could obviously cause some real problems if we were to get slammed at this vulnerable moment when the field is weakened due to the shifting. We can only speculate on what effects this would have on weather patterns, climate, tectonic plate activity, ect.

I dunno but I found this on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

Because the magnetic field has never been observed to reverse by humans with instrumentation, and the mechanism of field generation is not well understood, it is difficult to say what the characteristics of the magnetic field might be leading up to such a reversal.

Some speculate that a greatly diminished magnetic field during a reversal period will expose the surface of the Earth to a substantial and potentially damaging increase in cosmic radiation. However, Homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals, though they did not depend on computer systems that could be damaged by large coronal mass ejections.

There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions. A possible explanation is that the solar wind may induce a sufficient magnetic field in the Earth's ionosphere to shield the surface from energetic particles even in the absence of the Earth's normal magnetic field.[31]

Another possible explanation is that magnetic field actually does not vanish completely, with many poles forming chaotically in different places during reversal, until it stabilizes again.[28][32]

Welp, absolutely nothing we could do about this anyway, so cheers.

Runways are aligned to prevailing winds not magnetic headings. As the magnetic poles are always fluctuating.

This PARTICULAR airport very specifically and painstakingly constructed it's airports to have the runways match cardinal, from what I read.

I should have saved the comment, dammit.

Ahh not a good idea on their part.

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It sounds like you actuallly don't give a shit about the scientific explanation, but rather, are looking for some kook(s) to feed a silly ass conspiracy.

If you were genuinely interested, you'd leave out your bias and go to /r/askscience and just ask your question.

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You can just say

"I have observed A happening" "I was expecting B to happen, because I've observed B happening before" "Can anyone explain why A might be happening?"

You can add in a short description of how you attempted to discover the reason, but it's not absolutely required.

I agree that they're pretty strict over there, but with a simple question like that, you've got nothing to worry about. Just don't make any jokes - they DO NOT LAUGH. EVER.

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lol

Seriously, I'm genuinely happy to see that you stepped up and posted there. I upvoted the thread.

You may also enjoy my response to this topic

to be fair, veedonfleece posted in r/askscience not the OP. OP has talked in that thread, but is refusing to answer any of their questions (like how did you get these results).

ask them but leave your interpretation out of it. i'm sure there are some avid astronomers out there that can confirm or deny your claim.

or try /r/astronomy, just, like godofwar007 sez, leave your interpretation of it and ask that they check.

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It might actually not be accurate, though. Best to take it somewhere like askscience; if your hypothesis can survive their (hopefully) more rigourous attempts to disprove it, then you can say it's accurate.

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Not going to r/askscience is exactly what a rube or crackpot would do. You are making a claim that is easy to prove or disprove and is a significant difference from what is expected.

/askscience is a good idea, but he's probably not far off in the assumption that he'll be ridiculed for a simple observation.

That is plausibly true.. but they might have an explanation for him. Even if they don't the claims he is making are very easy to check, and confirm or refute.

Not if he just presents his data and asks them to verify it. The problem hey's coming across now is that r/askscience is asking him questions about his method and OP is refusing to answer them. That will cause OP to be ridiculed and banned, not simply asking the question.

I'm not saying you are.

What I am saying, though, is you might be wrong, or there might legitimately be a reason you got the result you got. Why not go ask the scientists about it, and see if they have an answer for it.

And hey, if you do manage to stump 'em, maybe you can get your name in some books for this.

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then go ask science and let them do their job.

So what exactly are the implications of this?

Not just us, indigenous peoples are saying it too. The Inuit, for example watch the sun's movements obsessively, and it just isn't quite in the right place at the right time; and neither is the wind, or the animals they hunt; they have been saying it isn't global warming all along, and now the truth is finally dawning on the blind, retarded white brother.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLGmmq58AVs

This is interesting, I noticed the same thing. Something is off.

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Again, why wouldn't you take this to /r/askscience?

For as long as you ignore hard facts, nobody's going to take you seriously.

I've submitted it. Hopefully, there will be some constructive responses. :-)

I upvoted your submission, hoping to encourage interest among the nerds.

Thanks. All I'm asking is for confirmation of a data point so ...

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Why would you be banned?

Bullshit. You'd be banned if you try to attribute it to a conspiracy. If you asked someone to verify what you found you get what you deserve. Good or bad.

Try setting up a mini stone henge, if the earths orbit is listing then that should give you definitive results.

Obligatory link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zdyo4vJuCU

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Of course you did just miss the summer solstice, so you're gonna have to wait till autumn to get those results ;)

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Don't forget your pointy hat.

I find it difficult to believe that one could accurately measure solar declination with just a compass, Google Earth and a piece of paper.

Please post your method, your measurements, exact date and time of measurement, altitude, latitude & longitude, the formulae you used, and your actual calculations. Without this, we have no clue what you actually measured.

How did you calculate your margin of error? What instruments did you use to measure lat., long., altitude, and your angles? Did you compensate for local time zone, summer time, altitude, level of horizon, and magnetic declination?

How did you measure any of this? You say you used a compass. Magnetic north is about 3½° off around Chicago. How did you get the angle measured so precisely?

Also, do you really mean declination? That's a pretty complicated calculation. If you mean the angle along the horizon, that's azimuth. In Evanston, IL, this morning, the Sun's azimuth at sunrise was 57.43° from due North, or 32.57° from due East.

You used a magnetic compass? That's your problem. Magnetic declination in eastern Wisconsin is almost 10°, I believe. Measure and mark true north by sighting the north star.

Care to elaborate?

There is a very simple test for this

Measure the elevation of the north pole star

Find recent photos of star trails going around the pole star.

If the earth is really shifting, it WILL show up in those photos.

Declination is the angle of some celestial object measured from the equator. The Maximum Declination of the Sun is limited by the tilt of the Earth.

At the solstices, the angle between the rays of the Sun and the plane of the Earth's equator reaches its maximum value of 23°26'. Therefore it is +23°26' at the northern summer solstice and −23°26' at the southern summer solstice. This would be true for every location on Earth.

The sun can never have a declination of 27 degrees unless we also have a shift in the tilt of the earth, and this would be observed in the pole star, etc as I have mentioned before. The declination of the sun and the shift of the pole star are absolutely connected.

ALSO

Sunrise can come early to the polar regions due the optical illusion called a MIRAGE

Yes, conditions might be changing so that mirages are happening more frequently.

Even so, see this description from 1992

SUNRISE Tuesday 22 September 1992 by Stephen G. Warren

The South Pole sunrise began two weeks early with the Sun still at five degrees North latitude. On September 8th, a calm day with an extreme temperature inversion causing bizarre distortions of the horizon, Dan, Kitt and Paul saw the Sun rise in an amazing mirage, then set again after just five minutes: a mirage that was last reported at such a large angle 400 years ago when Barents saw it at the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean in 1597.

The rest of us had to wait almost till Equinox to see the Sun. On Sunday the 20th I gave myself a birthday treat, taking a day off to write letters by the window as a blizzard raged outside. By evening the winds had weakened and we were allowed a brief break in the storm. The blowing snow began to settle, revealing the horizon, but there was still no sign of the Sun when I went to bed. At 2:30 am Jarvis knocked on my door to wake me: "The Sun is rising!" He prodded several of us up to the picture windows in the Skylab lounge; others stumbled outside to have a look. And it was beautiful. I had been learning the Beatles' song "Here Comes The Sun;" now I played it on my recorder over the loudspeaker to alert the whole station.

The upper limb of the orange disk threw off green flashes occasionally for two hours, just like at sunset six months ago. Then the clouds closed in, but we all knew the Sun had now returned for good.

EDIT Removed previous edits as not relevant

Man... I was gonna give you an upvote, then I saw your name...

Blows your mind?

An intelligent sourced comment from someone like me?

You have much to consider

Who is 1?

I choose # 2 since I did not want to take the presumption or arrogance of assuming that I was the best spokesperson for scientology on reddit.

I probably am not.

Magnetic north is moving 40 miles a year, and accelerating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lH1mkcDGiU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Edit** I dont say that as proof, but maybe it has something to do with it?

Reports all over the web are coming in that the sun is rising more North than it ever has before.

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This is the 5th BBS I've seen talking about it.

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=Sun+rising+more+north&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

OK. Maybe I'm not imagining things.

I'm always noting locations for photos I want to take and the sun's relation to various buildings. The sun used to rise behind an industrial plant that always has billowing clouds of steam. I see it on my drive to work every day, so my reference point is fixed.

The sun now rises several degrees to the North.

I don't have a way to measure this but I've noticed the sun is off because it was never able to shine in my room in the morning because my neighbors house always blocked it but now it rises north enough now and shines through my window that faces west by shining at a more northern angle in from of my neighbors house, it's weird this room used to be cool for the summer too before this happened

How long have you been at the place.. years?

since 1998, I think this is the first summer I've noticed

It's possible this could be due to the ground shifting.. live near any fault lines?

the closest one is the San Joaquin fualt, I live an hour out from SF california. I don't think anything moved out here yet

thinner ice caps

There have been reports that the first sun of the year arrived 2 days early in Greenland.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't this shift in the Earths axis cause satellite malfunctions? Sat dishes must be very precise with the coordinates or it won't work.

The OP, badandrew, seems to be going out of his way not to answer the simpliest questions about his techniques for gathering the data he presented over at /r/askscience: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/if4b9/has_the_angle_of_the_rising_sun_in_relation_to/ So as far as I can tell he has nothing to substantiate his claims, is beating around the bush and coming off as kind of a looney as a result.

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What you've said here doesn't really mean anything. You used a compass, okay. Also a sheet of paper. You've still managed to not say anything about how you came to your conclusion.

OH SHIT, THE SUN DIDN'T LOOK RIGHT TODAY? SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING.

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what? your comment doesn't add to the conversation at all. did you post this in the right thread?

wow - sorry

Who is 1?